the Lacuna Paradigm
by And The Adversary Succeeds
Summary: Even as the river of reality flows unending, a force threatens to consume all that sail its waters. A formless nothingness has come, and now three have been chosen to stop this great being. But where trillions failed, can they succeed? - Ch.2 posted -
1. Wake From Your Darkness Dormant

1: Wake From Your Darkness Dormant

_Little forms. Little minds. Big souls. But dwarfed by the stream. Dwarfed by the concepts and the virtually limitless space of reality around them. And the unreality within. _

_ I have plucked you three for a reason. I have chosen you for your souls. For they have reflected something that is rare in your race. Something far more powerful. Shall I show you dreams? Or will I give you nightmares? Despair is a part of what I am. Rage is the fire in my blood. Reason controls my mind. And I have have seen generations fall. Legacies burn. Whole civilizations crumble. And I pray that you will end these visions. Oh. How I pray._

_ Do not become another memory._

_ Fill this void with your minds. Expand yourselves to fit the limitless skies of this ocean. Of my Paradigm. Swim freely with soaring strokes. Prove that you can hold your own against a force far stronger than your miniscule existences. What do you have that untold trillions did not? And that many more in the countless and unlimited expanses of reality don't. _

_ Are you truly set apart?_

_ Or are you just three more wastes of space and time?_

_ Answers my questions not with words. Cast away my queries now with hollow sounds. But with weight. Actions will be your swords. But words are not completely pointless. After all, speech is not as primitive as the loftier cultures would believe. Proven even further by the failure and the succeeding collapse of their worlds._

_ Are you so hollow? Are you so shallow? Do you lack depth? How many are your limits? Hm. Excuse my pondering, but it is not so often that I peer into the minds of such a complex species. But yet, your kind have devolved before, and many of your blood's worlds now lie in the ashes of the void that is eternal nothingness. _

_ Show me that you have prevailed where they have failed! Have the hardships suffered by your world truly strengthened your people? Have they given extra meaning to life? Do you now see further than your eyes can? Can you feel what your hands cannot? Have you grasped what cannot be obtained? _

_ Wake! Wake now from your darkness, from your dormancy!_

_ Meet my challenges! _

_ Show me that you are worthy! _

_ For if you hold back now, there will be nothing to stop the storm that is coming! Stand alone in the fires of perdition and emerge victorious!_

_ Face me!_

_ Face the Trinity! _


	2. Lost

2: Lost

"_Cold, stark loneliness. The wintry winds that sweep through this hollow valley of the rocky dead. They carry with them: Memories. Only the sounds of sorrow echo here. Only the cries of the lost. This is where you wake._"

* - * - *

Yuna opened her eyes slowly. She felt the stinging bite of frozen air ripping across her skin. Wet snow stung her flesh, and the feeling of solid, cold stone was all around her. Dim, gray light met her eyes. She was under a large stone outcrop, near a jagged cliff. Her body blanketed by white snow. The stinging powder acted like a reverse blanket, bringing cold in the stead of warmth.

She sat up slowly, shakily. Her blue-green eyes searched the area around her fearfully. _Where am I?_ She must have been dreaming. This seemed like Gagazet but . . she had been in Besaid the last she could remember. She didn't recall going to bed.

_So where am I?_

She crawled slowly to the edge of the cliff, her movements hampered by the freezing cold. She stopped at the edge and hugged herself for warmth, but it was futile. There was none for her body to give. The drop was sheer, and the bottom jagged.

"Disorienting?" she heard a voice ask. Yuna turned around quickly. A man was standing at the back of the ledge, hands clasped behind his back. His hair was jet black. He wore a long black coat. All his clothes beneath were black as well. The left arm of his coat was gone, replaced by black and silver armor. His entire right leg was covered by similar armor. Two silver studs were in his left ear, a silver chain stretched between them. Silver chain and solid bracelets adorned his right wrist, and silver many silver rings were on his fingers. Thin veins of what appeared to be solid silver snaked across his right cheek and up around his eye to his forehead.

"Who are you?" Yuna asked, struggling to keep her teeth from chattering.

The man's lips twitched, "I am many things. I am agony, despair, grief, fear, pain, and loss. But you may call me Sorrow."

Yuna frowned. An unnatural chill crawled up her heart, "What-"

"How is it always such a difficult concept?" he asked. "That there could be a physical manifestation of misery? But then again, am I truly all that physical?" he asked. He seemed to dissolve into a black fog that rushed across the ledge and out into the air where it turned back into the man.

He held out a hand nonchalantly, letting snowflakes fall into his palm. They gathered where they should have melted, "I am here to test you." he said, watching the snow build up in his hand. Every so often some would be whisked away with the wind, but it still built up. "To see if you are worthy."

"Worthy for what?" Yuna asked. "Where am I? Where are my-"

"You have fears. You have sadness." he said. "Does that make you weak?"

Yuna eyed the man for a moment, shivering as she did so, "No. It's natural for humans to feel those things. It's not a weakness."

"You feel much for others. Too much, perhaps. It can warp judgment, hinder decisions. Is that not a weakness?"

Yuna shook her head, crystals of snow fell from her hair and onto her face, leaving stinging pools to run down her cheeks, "It's called compassion. And it is a strength."

"Perhaps in moderation, but what about when it causes you to throw away your life for others, or to throw away much for little? Do you look at _all_ the outcomes of your _charities_? Do you not consider the rationality of cause and effect?"

"What are you-" Yuna was silenced by a rush of murky black. The man dissolved into a whirlwind that blanketed everything. When it clear, she found herself atop the mountain. Precariously she stood on the summit's precipice. Inches away from her destruction.

"Consider this." a rush of black and he was beside her, though not quite fully formed. Half of him was still a misty cloud that trailed behind him as he ghosted close to her. "You love someone, do you not?"

Yuna nodded, "I do, but I don't-"

"What would you be willing to sacrifice to protect him? What were you willing to sacrifice to get him back two years ago, hm?" he slowly floated past her, and out into the sky.

"I . . I don't-"

"Would you give up the world for him?" he asked, raising a single eyebrow. "If it meant saving your lover would you so carelessly discard your planet? Your people? Just for the sake of one man? One man whose existence is absolutely _meaningless_ in the vast infinities of the cosmos?"

Yuna stared at the man in shock, "No. No! I would never do that!"

"So if you had to you would so willingly condemn _him _to save your world? If protecting your world meant casting his soul back into the confines of everlasting oblivion, would you do it? One man, for the sake of _many_?" he drifted closer to her, his murky, green-black eyes staring through her eyes and into her soul.

Yuna balled her hands into fists, "Yes." she nodded, trembling from more than chill now. The memories of the past crept up inside her. But now with renewed vitality. They gripped her heart and soul and wrenched them, forcing from her a cry of despair. Her face was downcast as furious tears stung her eyes.

"But you felt such pain." Sorrow whispered forlornly. "_Such_ loss, so much sorrow. Could you bear it?"

Yuna looked up, tear flowing down her cheeks, "You just said it yourself!" she sobbed. "Four years ago I had to save my world. And he disappeared. And I hated it. I hated it! But it was the only way. So I had to let it happen." she hung her head again. "No matter how horrible it was."

"And if you had to do it again?"

Yuna gritted her teeth at how Sorrow seemed to be enjoying this, "If it was the only way . . I would."

"Even though the pain would be so much more." Sorrow whispered. Yuna felt cold brushes of air against the skin of her ear. And not the wind, this was different. The chill was not that of the biting, stinging wind. It was the cold that came with being alone, with being lost. Only in a more tangible form.

"Yes." Yuna said. "It would hurt much more now, but I would do it if I had to."

"What if _you_ had to die?" Sorrow asked sadly. Yuna suddenly felt herself pushed forward. The tips of her feet hung barely over the edge of the cliff. She waved her arms to balance herself, her heart felt like it was going to explode. She screamed as a smoky black hand tightened around her wrist, and another pressed to her back.

Sorrow was beside her, looking calmly over the edge while Yuna's eyes were wide with fear. Sorrow looked at her, "So close now. Lets say, and this is purely hypothetical, that you had to die to save your people. Would you stand on the mountain's edge and throw yourself off? Place your soul in the hands of the gods and leap? Pray they'll be merciful?" he pulled at her gently, pushing her further to the edge.

The hand on her back seemed to melt through her and into her soul. Sorrow pushed further in. Yuna felt tearing sadness course through her like the rapids of a frozen river. She felt the pain and agony of loss, the fear of death increased. She sobbed, trying to push herself back, trying to muster up the strength to save herself. Or to at least answer Sorrow's question. But, then again, did she want to? If she answered truthfully, would he really throw her over the edge?

Yes, she would die for her world if it was the only way. And she was afraid of dying. But that meant nothing. She had grown up with the thought that she had to help those around her, no matter what the cost. She had been ready to die defeating Sin, and even die defeating Vegnagun and Shuyin, should it come down to that. Luckily it never had.

Her foot slipped as she struggled. The rough stone cut her leg as she dropped, just barely managing not to fall off the summit. She felt a burning defiance within her. This . . _being_ . . had no right to torment her like this!

"Yes!" she yelled. "If I had to, I would!"

Sorrow looked down at her, "So . . If I was going to destroy your world, and I demanded that the _only_ way Spira would be saved was for your life to end, you would let me drop you?"

Yuna nodded, still crying, "If it was the only way." another rush of black around her, and she was no longer cold, but she had no idea where she was. Only vast darkness surrounded her. She looked around, feeling the horrid emotions slowly melt away.


End file.
